


Anchored

by fangirl_250_501



Series: Adrift Series [3]
Category: Lost
Genre: Canon-Typical Behavior, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, F/M, Lost (TV) Season 4, Lost (TV) Season 5, Lost (TV) Season 6, Lost (TV) Spoilers, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:35:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28866360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_250_501/pseuds/fangirl_250_501
Summary: Life on the island has become normal to Lena, just in time for everything to be thrown into complete chaos yet again. The mission to contact the mysterious freighter has succeeded, but it may have been the wrong decision. Time itself has been displaced, and the flight 815 survivors face their biggest challenge yet, one that has been there since day one.
Relationships: Sayid Jarrah/Original Character(s), Sayid Jarrah/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Adrift Series [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001361
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the third book of the Adrift Series. If you have not read the first two books, I suggest doing so before reading this, or you will be very confused. Enjoy!

_Three._

_Two._

_One._

Four gunshots rang out against the formerly silent air. Surprisingly, Lena didn’t feel any pain. Was that what it felt like to die? But as she looked around, she saw that she hadn’t been shot, and neither had any of her friends.

Lena Hale Ashford was alive. 

Lena looked over at Sayid, with tears still in her eyes from thinking that she was about to die. He looked equally relieved, clearly also believing that the Others were going to shoot them.

Two of the three Others, Pryce and Tom were arguing about their decision to fire into the sand, and not into the heads of the four survivors who had stayed behind. The third Other was still pointing a gun at the four of them, a fresh reminder that they were nowhere near close to being out of the woods. 

And then Hugo Reyes drove a van out of the jungle. 

Lena didn’t quite believe what she was seeing at first, but it became clear that it was real as Hurley ran over Pryce, killing him instantly. 

The third Other aimed his gun at Hurley, and for a horrible moment, Lena thought he was going to get shot. However, before that could happen, Sawyer ran out from the jungle and fired his gun at the Other. But, before the man could do anything, Sayid kicked the Other’s legs out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground. Then, with one quick move, Sayid broke the man’s neck _with his feet._

_Holy shit._

As she was still tied up, Lena couldn’t do anything but watch as the third member of the rescue party, Juliet, stepped on Tom’s hand before he could reach his gun. 

“I give up.” Tom gasped, talking to Sawyer, who was standing over him with a gun in hand. Instead of letting him surrender, though, Sawyer shot Tom in the chest.

“That’s for taking the kid off the raft.” Sawyer growled. Lena could only assume he was referring to Walt, who had been taken from Michael’s raft by Tom and other Others.

“We’re alive.” She whispered. She could barely believe it, thinking that they had been dead for sure. 

“Congratulations, Blue.” Sawyer replied as he untied the four of them. Lena rolled her eyes as she jogged over to grab her sword. Really though, she was glad to be back in the usual routine of nicknames and sarcasm. 

“What about Charlie and Desmond?” Hurley asked. “Are they back yet?” Lena shook her head, and Hurley sighed, although she was sure that they were fine. 

Hurley went to use the walkie-talkie he had taken from Tom to contact Jack and the rest of the group, and Lena slid her sword back into the sheath, feeling it fit snugly into place. 

“Guys!” Hurley shouted from down the beach, waving the walkie-talkie in the air. “I just talked to Jack. The plan worked, we’re getting rescued!” Lena looked up at him happily. It hadn’t really seemed like a reality until that point. They were really getting off of the island. 

Hurley had decided to do a cannonball into the ocean, which didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Just as Lena decided she would do something to celebrate, a canoe arrived on shore, carrying Desmond, who had apparently returned from the Looking Glass station.

But where was Charlie?

“We need to get to Jack!” Desmond shouted, not bothering to give any sort of explanation. “He can’t get in touch with that bloody boat!” 

“Relax, Scottie, everything’s fine.” Sawyer replied. “The boat is on the way.” Desmond’s eyes widened and he muttered a long string of curse words.

“Hey, where’s Charlie?” Hurley asked nervously. Desmond either didn’t hear him or he didn’t want to answer the question. Lena hoped it was the first option, because if not… something horrible might have happened.

“No, no, no!” Desmond said. “That Naomi woman, she lied. The people on that boat aren’t who they say they are!” The rest of the group continued to ask him questions, and Desmond tried to answer them. But in Hurley’s case, there seemed to be only one question on his mind.  
“Where’s Charlie?!”

“I- I’m sorry, brother.” Desmond whispered. Tears filled Lena’s eyes as she realized exactly what had happened: Charlie was dead. 

…

Charlie was a genuinely good person, even if he had bad moments. He really did care about everyone else, which was made clear by his sacrifice. Desmond had tearfully explained what happened. How Charlie turned the communications back on, but Mikhail, who was somehow still alive, had blow up the window. Charlie had drowned, but not before writing one last message on his hand: Not Penny’s boat. It seemed that the boat coming to the island did not belong to Penelope Widmore after all. 

There was also a whole argument about whether to contact Jack, or act upon Charlie’s words. It had ended with Hurley throwing the walkie-talkie into the ocean and saying that they had to meet up with Jack and the others. 

So that’s exactly what they did. And, along the way, Locke had found them as well, finally returning from his time with the Others. Something was off about him, although Lena couldn’t place what it was. 

They had, though, found the other group, and many people reunited happily. All but Claire, who looked through the smaller group for Charlie. The look on her face made Lena want to break down and cry.

In the end, it was Hurley who broke the news. It was heartbreaking to see them cry together.

Still, there were other things going on as well. Ben had finally been captured, and it was Danielle who was keeping watch over him. Jack, meanwhile, was pointing a gun at Locke, for some reason.

Something interesting must have happened.

“You’re not going to shoot me, Jack.” Locke reasoned, although Lena wasn’t so sure. “Not anymore than I was going to-“ Jack interrupted him by pulling the trigger, startling the rest of the group. No bullet was fired, however.

“It’s not loaded.” Locke whispered, utterly shocked that Jack actually tried to kill him, even though it didn’t work.

So Jack did the next best thing. He started punching Locke. 

He was quickly pulled away, however, by Sawyer and Sayid, who both seemed to always do that sort of thing in situations like those. If Lena had a dollar for every time Jack was mad at Locke, she would have a whole lot of money. 

“Do you know what he did?!” Jack shouted. None of the people that came from the beach did actually know what he did, so they let him explain. “You killed Naomi, and you blew up every single chance we had of escaping this place.” Naomi was dead? Maybe that had something to do with the whole ‘Not Penny’s boat’ thing.

Maybe, for once, Locke had been right. 

“She wants her people to come here.” Locke countered. “And when they do, we need to be far away. The Others abandoned the Barracks, so I’ll go there. It has a security system, and that will have to do until I can come up with something else. If you want to live, come with me.” 

“You’re insane, John.” Jack said. “No one will go with you, because-“

“What about Charlie?” Hurley suddenly exclaimed. “He went down to that station so we could be rescued, and whatever he did worked. But something must have happened, because he changed his mind. And the last thing he did before he died was to warn us that those people aren’t who they say they are. So I’m listening to my friend. I’m listening to Charlie.” After his big statement, Hurley went to stand with Locke. He made a convincing argument, and it would be truly awful if Charlie died for nothing. 

“Anyone else?” Locke asked. “We don’t have much time.” And many people did join him, including Claire, Sawyer, Danielle, and Ben.

Lena thought about her options. She didn’t have much time, and she needed to chose. She didn’t trust Locke, not one bit. But she didn’t believe that the people on the boat had the best intentions either.

Coming to a decision, she walked to Locke’s group.

“Lena, what are you doing?” A voice asked as she felt a hand grab her arm. She turned to see Sayid, looking surprised at what she had chosen to do.

“I don’t think we’re safe if we stay.” Was all she could manage to say before wrenching her arm out of his grip and officially joining the other side. 

“If you change your mind, you know where to find us.” Locke said before turning and walking into the jungle. The rest of the group gradually followed, including Lena. She only hesitated for a moment, glancing back at those she was leaving behind. Looking back at Sayid.

But she stuck to her choice, and she followed the rest of them towards the intended destination, not looking back once.


	2. Chapter 2

“Why are we going east?” Sawyer called out to Locke as he led them through the dense jungle. “You said the Barracks are to the south.” Lena hadn’t really been paying attention to which direction they were going, but she realized that Sawyer was right.

“Because we need to make a small detour first.” Locke explained. “There’s a cabin I have to go too.” Lena raised her eyebrows. Locke had been very clear that they had to get to the Barracks, but apparently it wasn’t as urgent as she had thought.   
“You mind telling us exactly who it is you’re getting orders from?” Sawyer asked after he and Locke had a sort of mini-argument. 

“I got them from Walt.” Locke replied before walking off again. Lena stared, extremely confused. Walt had left the island a while ago, and there was no way he could have gotten back.

She was beginning to doubt that she had made the right decision. 

…

“So what did he say?” Lena asked Sawyer after he confronted Locke about the fact that he was getting orders from Walt.

“The guy is crazy, and we all know it.” Sawyer replied. “He says that he saw some kind of vision of Walt that told him to do all of this. I don’t buy it.”  
“Then who else could have done it?” Lena wondered. “Not Ben. Locke said that Ben shot him.” She pondered it for a moment. Was there some other strange divine force on the island? At that point, she wouldn’t be surprised. 

“Uh, dude!” Hurley yelled from the front of the group. Lena and Sawyer glanced at each other before pushing through the crowd of people to see a woman with bright red hair in the stream. 

“Hi.” She said in a British accent.

“Hi yourself.” Locke replied. She got out of the water uncomfortably, looking around at all of them. Lena thought she could see a bit of recognition in her eyes, but she might have imagined it. 

“You’re the 815 survivors!” She gasped. There was no point in lying to her, so Lena nodded in confirmation. “I can’t believe you’re alive. How many of you are there?”

“Why do you want to know?” Hurley asked suspiciously. She replied smartly, saying that why wouldn’t she want to know, and Hurley decided to talk. “Forty-eight of us survived the crash, but a lot of people-“  
“Hugo.” Locke said sternly as the woman talked to Claire about Aaron. 

“I’ve got millions of questions, but I guess I can ask them on the boat.” She said, addressing the entire group. “We all have a transponder, so someone will be here soon. There’s four of us, including me. We all came in on a helicopter. They’ll find us.”

“You see, that’s the problem.” Locke replied. “We don’t want to be found.” The woman gaped at him, looking around at all of them in shock.

Suddenly, two gunshots rang out in the air, hitting the woman in the chest. She collapsed to the ground, as Lena turned to see Ben, still holding the gun in his hands. He must have taken it from someone else.

Sawyer was quick to act, taking the gun and shoving Ben to the ground. Lena, meanwhile, knelt down next to the woman, along with Locke, who actually seemed concerned. 

“Vest.” She groaned. “Vest.” Lena unzipped the woman’s jacket to see that she was, in fact, wearing a bulletproof vest that had just saved her life. 

“Are you alright?” Lena asked. The woman looked at her like it was the stupidest question in the world, which it kind of was. Sawyer was holding a gun to Ben’s head, but waiting for Locke to give the order. 

“Do it, James.” Locke instructed, despite Ben’s shouts and protests. 

“Wait!” Ben shouted, looking around at the group for someone who would help him. “Lena, I can tell you about the sword, I can give you the information you want if you keep me alive.” She stared at him incredulously. Information or no information, did he _seriously_ think that she was going to help him?

“If neither of you want to kill him, I can do it.” Lena commented to Locke and Sawyer, but Locke shook his head and mumbled something about it being his mess. However, he hesitated for a moment to ask one question.

“What is the monster, Ben?”

“I… I don’t know.” Ben replied, prompting Locke to take the gun from Sawyer and point it at Ben. 

“Goodbye, Benjamin.”

“Her name is Charlotte Staples Lewis!” Ben shouted in one last attempt to save himself. “Born July 2nd, 1979, Essex, England. Oldest of three sisters. She has a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Oxford, and she’s here with two other team members and a pilot. Their names are Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume, and Frank Lapidus.”

Lena looked to the woman, Charlotte, for confirmation, and she just nodded in shock. 

“How do you know all that?” Lena asked, hand on her gun and ready to shoot if need be.

“Because I have a spy on their boat.”

…

“Sorry about that.” Lena said to Charlotte as they continued to walk through the jungle. “About you getting shot, I mean.”

“Well, it wasn’t your fault.” Charlotte replied. Her mind was clearly elsewhere, probably worrying about the rest of her team. Daniel, Miles, and someone else who’s name Lena had forgotten. 

Clearly Charlotte wasn’t in the mood for a conversation, so Lena quickly moved away from her. 

The plan to find Locke’s mysterious cabin had seemingly failed, because they were now moving in the opposite direction, to where she was pretty sure would lead to the Barracks. Danielle had reminded Locke that if the rest of Charlotte’s team was with Jack and the others, they knew exactly where they would be heading. 

So Locke made a plan. They would pretend to leave Hurley behind in one of the houses, and spring a trap. Lena hoped that none of her friends would be there. Especially Sayid. 

But she should have known that he would be there. 

The door to Ben’s house swung open, meaning that Hurley did his job. Lena peeked out from her hiding spot to see Sayid, Kate, and another man who she didn’t know, probably a member of Charlotte’s team. 

Lena glanced over at Locke, and he signaled for her and the others in waiting, that being Danielle and Sawyer. The latter snuck into the room where Kate was, while Danielle held a gun on the unfamiliar man. 

Sayid, obviously hearing something walked back into the main room with a gun in hand.

“Well done, Hugo.” Locke, holding a gun, remarked to Hurley, who muttered a quick apology to Sayid, who was still holding his gun.

“Just put the gun down, okay?” Lena said gently. She didn’t want to have to fight anyone.

“Or what?” Sayid replied, looking betrayed. “You’ll shoot me?”

“No.” Lena said. “No, I won’t. But I can’t say the same about everyone else, and I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Just put the gun down, Sayid.” He stared at her for a moment before reluctantly letting go of the gun, not bothering to do anything as it clattered to the floor. 

“Alright, Lena, stay here and watch him until I figure this out.” Locke ordered. he gestured for Danielle to bring the other man somewhere else, and Hurley backed out uncomfortably. 

Lena knew that Kate and Sawyer were in another room of the house, but that didn’t make it any less uncomfortable to be alone with Sayid after what just happened. 

“Why are you with him?” Sayid demanded. “Why, of all the people, would you go with Locke? He’s insane, he’s a-“

“You don’t get it!” Lena retorted. “It’s not about Jack vs Locke!”

“Oh, then enlighten me.” He said. “What is it about?”

“You don’t know who these people coming are!” Lena argued. “Look, Jack is a good guy, but he’s too trusting.”

“And I suppose you know exactly who those people on the boat are, then?!” Sayid yelled, clearly getting angry. Lena was angry as well, and she couldn’t believe that it was just a few hours ago that the two of them were fighting the Others together.

“No.” Lena said sharply. “That’s my point.” At that moment, Danielle came back, saying that she had orders from Locke to take Sayid elsewhere. 

“Goodbye, Lena.” Sayid sighed as Danielle was about to take him away. Lena sighed, not wanting to end things on that note. 

“Sayid-“  
“You’ve chosen your side.”

And as Danielle led him out, Sayid didn’t look back at her once. Once they were gone, Lena let out an angry, frustrated sigh. Sayid was one of the few people that she could absolutely count on, and now Lena wasn’t even sure of that.

Everything was changing.


	3. Chapter 3

In the end, Sayid and Locke made a deal: Sayid would take Charlotte back to their camp in exchange for letting Locke keep the other man, who’s name Lena learned was Miles. Kate, meanwhile, had decided to stay behind as well.

But Sayid was gone. 

“Hey guys.” Lena said to Claire and Kate as she walked by. The two of them were sharing a house, right next to the one that belonged to Sawyer and Hurley. Lena could tell which members of the group Locke valued the most, because they got the best houses. Lena didn’t even have to get a roommate. She assumed that Locke didn’t want to meet the sharp end of her sword.

“Hi, Lena.” Claire greeted. “Want some coffee?” At that, Lena noticed the warm mugs in both of their hands, and she nodded happily. She never thought she would have coffee again, but there it was.

As Claire was about to say something else, Locke walked out of the house that formerly belonged to Ben, slamming the door shut behind him.

“What is that all about?” Kate asked.

“Who knows?” Lena replied. “It’s Locke. I don’t get half of what he does, and the other half I barely understand.” The three of them laughed a little, but they were interrupted by Sawyer.

“Morning, ladies.” He said. Lena rolled her eyes. “The coffee smells good.”

“I’ll go make you a cup then.” Claire said, walking into the house. Lena, sensing that Sawyer and Kate wanted to be alone, followed her in. 

Claire’s house wasn’t that different from her own. Lena assumed that most of the Barracks were relatively the same, although some houses were much nicer. The houses, after all, were originally used by the mysterious DHARMA Initiative before the Others took over. 

“Do you think that things will finally settle down around here?” Claire asked as she poured more coffee into mugs.

“I sure hope so.” Lena replied as Claire handed her a mug full of the steaming liquid. She drank it happily, not caring about the heat. Of all of the things from her old life, she really missed coffee. 

…

Lena’s optimism at everything maybe calming down was short-lived, as Kate approached her later that day, and Lena could already tell what was going on just from the lookin her eyes.

“No!” Lena exclaimed immediately. “I’m not stabbing anyone, I’m not going on some trek through the jungle, I’m not covering for you, Kate.” Kate faltered a bit, but she kept going, even after Lena’s refusal. 

“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.” Kate pointed out.

“I don’t have to, I know that look.” Lena accused. But something in the back of her mind was happy. Part of her was itching to get in another fight. 

“Look.” Kate began. “The whole reason Miles’s team is here is because of Ben. I talked to Miles, and we made a deal, but I need to get him to the basement where Ben is.” 

_Don’t say yes, Lena,_ she told herself. _Don’t-_

“Alright.” Lena said, interrupting her thoughts. _You absolute idiot!_ She berated herself. “What do you need me to do.” Kate sighed with relief, and Lena sighed as well, although it was for the exact opposite reason. 

“I’ve already got Sawyer distracting Locke.” Kate explained. “I just need you to keep watch.” Lena nodded, still angry at herself for getting into another one of those crazy plans.

…

Kate’s plan had been both a fail and a success. 

She had gotten Miles his talk with Ben, and then Miles told Kate what she needed to know. Locke had caught her immediately afterwards, though, and he had apparently banished her. 

“He what?!” Lena exclaimed. “Who does he think he is, some kind of king?”

“I’m sure he does.” Kate replied with a slight eye roll. “But I’m going back to the beach. I can’t stay here.”

“I can convince Locke, and if that doesn’t work, I can-“ Lena began, but Kate cut her off.

“I’m leaving, Lena.” Kate interrupted. She pulled her backpack over her shoulders and began to walk in the other direction. Lena stared at her for one moment before turning and walking back into her house. Some things, she just couldn’t change. 

...

“Hey!” Lena yelled running over to Locke. He was finally out of his house, and she was going to use that opportunity. “What do you think you’re doing? You banished Kate, and then you put a grenade in a guy’s mouth?!” She had heard news of what Locke did to Miles from Hurley, and she was utterly horrified by it.

“Do you have a problem with that, Lena?” Locke asked calmly. She gaped at him.

“Well, what does it sound like to you, John?” She retorted. “Do you even have any sort of plan, or are we just going to hide here until these freighter people leave?” 

“I don’t know what these people are going to do.” Locke said. “If I did, we might be in a different situation. For now, we’ll wait. If we do have to fight, I hope I can count on you.”

“Of course you can.” Lena sighed. “But you have got to start trusting the people on your side-“

“I tried trusting people once, Lena.” He interrupted. “It didn’t work out so well. I’m going to do this my way, and if you don’t like that, then the beach is just a few miles to the north.”

…

Lena decided to avoid Locke for the rest of the day. She was really starting to wish that the freighter people were good just so she didn’t have to be on his team anymore.

“Oh, beat that!” A voice exclaimed. Lena jogged around one of the houses to see Sawyer and Hurley playing horseshoes near their house. She had just gotten there when Hurley threw a perfect shot, landing right on target.

“Nice one, Hurley.” Lena commented as Sawyer swore. She and Hurley just laughed, but his laughter abruptly stopped as he saw something just over Lena’s shoulder. She turned around and was completely shocked to see Ben Linus, walking out in the open and holding a pule of clean and folded clothing.

“What the hell are you doing?” Lena demanded. Ben paused and turned to look at the three of them, his expression being one of pure satisfaction.

“I’ll see you at dinner!” He said cheerfully before walking into a house and closing the door behind him. 

There was only one person who had the authority to let Ben walk free. 

John Locke was even crazier than Lena had thought.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, Locke called a meeting of the entire population of the Barracks to discuss the two outsiders in the camp: Miles and Ben.

“Thank you all for your patience.” Locke began as he pushed Miles through the door. “I know it's taken me a few days to figure out our next move, but I didn't want to do anything until I knew more about our current situation. You deserve to know everything that I do, so no more secrets. As you all know, Miles here and three of his people came to the island about a week ago, so I brought him up from the boathouse to share with us exactly why they're here.” 

It seemed that, despite his prior words, Locke had taken Lena’s suggestion to trust the rest of them, so maybe he did have a little common sense.

“They’re here for Ben.” Hurley interjected as Miles began to explain. “We knew that, like, forever ago.” Miles looked like he was about to make some sort of sarcastic remark, but he held back.

“Alright then, let’s just turn Ben over then.” Sawyer decided. “How exactly should we do that?”

“We can’t turn him over.” Locke explained. “Once they have Ben, they’ll kill everyone else on the island.”

“So you want to make him one of us?” Lena asked incredulously. “You of all people are going to protect him? He killed a whole lot of people, and he tried to kill you.”

“And he won’t tell us who is spy on the boat is.” Hurley added. Lena nodded at Hurley’s addition to her statement. She wanted to know who it was as much as anybody.

“Oh, it’s Michael.” Ben said dismissively with a wave of his hand. Multiple people, including Lena, made exclamations of shock. Michael?! Michael was his spy?

“I’m sorry, the same Michael who killed two innocent women in cold blood?” Lena clarified, not quite believing it. Ever since he had left the island, he had sort of disappeared from Lena’s mind.

“Who did all that to set this bastard free?” Sawyer continued. “And then sold us out to get off the island? That Michael?”  
“Yes.” Locke sighed. “That Michael.” Lena and Sawyer glanced at each other, both of them annoyed and worried. Things were getting complicated, and they were getting complicated quickly.

…

Lena heard the first gunshots in the late morning of the next day. 

She had been reading inside her house when she heard it, followed by screams and shouts. She sprang into action immediately, grabbing her gun off of the counter. Her sword was in its sheath, as always, and she peeked through the window to see what was happening. 

Some of the people in the camp were coming out of their houses, and they were immediately shot down by gunfire. Lena gasped as bodies fell to floor. 

Suddenly, the ground shook as there was a large explosion. Lena regained her footing to see that the house that was hit belonged to Claire.

“Oh no.” She whispered. Everything was both figuratively and literally collapsing around her. She had to do something, but she also had to do it without getting killed.

She decided that she was going to make a plan, but the plan to plan was quickly scrapped when she saw Sawyer running towards the wreckage of Claire’s house.

Lena figured that it would be stupid to go out the front door, so she smashed the window with her gun and climbed out, trying to stay low. She saw that Sawyer had Claire in his arms, and she hoped that Aaron was safe as well. The more pressing matter was the attackers, with their sights on Sawyer, who was out in the open.

However, they never got the chance to open fire. Lena emerged from her hiding spot and fired in the general direction of where the offending shots had come from.

“Go!” She shouted to Sawyer, hoping that he, at least, had some sort of a plan. “I’ll cover you!” Sawyer nodded and ran with Claire towards the porch of Ben’s house. Lena followed, ducking low and continuing to shoot.

“Open the door!” Sawyer shouted to whoever was inside. Lena was running out of ammunition, and there were far more of them than her.

“Get that door open or we’re both gonna die!” Lena yelled to Sawyer, not daring to look back for one moment. She heard the sound of breaking glass, and allowed herself one glance to see that the side window was broken. 

Sawyer lifted Claire inside and then followed suit, with Lena quickly climbing into the house last. She panted for breath as she looked around, seeing Locke, Ben, and Hurley, who was thankfully holding Aaron in his arms. 

After making sure that Claire was alright, Lena turned to the other inhabitants of the house, possibly the only people who had survived the attack.

“What the actual hell is going on?!” She demanded, aiming her question and Locke and Ben especially.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ben replied in that annoyingly nonchalant way of his. “These are the people from the freighter. They’re here for me, and they killed those people so you would be angry enough to give me up.”

To Lena, giving them Ben didn’t sound like a bad idea. Sawyer seemed to agree with that, as he grabbed Ben and was about to say something. Before he could do anything, however, the doorbell rang. 

Everybody froze, unsure of what to do. Surely the people who had been shooting at them wouldn’t just march right up to the front door?

Sawyer, it seemed, wanted an answer. He started pushing their hand-made barricade away, despite the warnings of Ben. Lena pointed her gun at the door, prepared to shoot as Sawyer opened the door, pulled the person who was outside into the house, and slammed it again.

“Miles?!” Most of them, including Lena, exclaimed at the same time. 

“Who let you out?” Sawyer asked as Lena and Hurley worked on barricading the door again, pushing a bookshelf and a couch into place.

“The people who gave me this.” Miles replied in an annoyed tone, waving a walkie-talkie in the air. “They want to talk.” 

…

“There’s maybe six of them, I’m not sure.” Miles explained after the rest of them asked all the questions racing through their minds. 

“What do you mean, you’re not sure?” Lena asked. “Didn’t you all come on the same boat?”

“I was told they were security for him.” Miles answered, gesturing to Ben. “To escort him back to the mainland. And now, they want to talk to you.”

“And why would I say a word to these people?” Ben said, seemingly disgusted by the mere thought of it, although Lena could see worry in his eyes. 

“Because they have your daughter.” 

Ben’s eyes widened in fear, and he snatched the walkie-talkie out of Miles’s hand before talking into the radio.

“Am I speaking to Benjamin Linus?” Replied a voice. Something about it made Lena extremely uncomfortable. There was something about the person on the other end of the walkie-talkie that scared her.

“That’s right.” Ben said, trying to keep his voice steady.

“My name is Martin Keamy.” Came the voice again. “I’m an employee of Charles Widmore.” The name sounded familiar, although Lena couldn’t place why. Whatever the case, his name alone made him sound evil. “I want to talk to you, Ben, face-to-face. Look out the east widow.” Cautiously, Ben did so, and from further back in the house, Lena could see a man standing there. He was tall, muscular, and wearing standard military clothing, with a whole lot of guns. 

Ben and Keamy exchanged a few more words that Lena couldn’t here when, much to her horror, Alex Rousseau was pushed out of the jungle and forced to kneel as Keamy put a gun to her head.

Lena couldn’t hear what Alex said to Ben, but she could tell by the tears on the girl’s face that Karl and Danielle were dead, and Keamy wouldn’t hesitate to shoot her as well.

“Okay, listen.” Ben said, panicked, trying to figure out how to save Alex. “She’s not my daughter. I stole her as a baby. She’s a pawn, she means nothing to me. So if you want to kill her, go ahead and-“

A single gunshot rang out through the air, and everything seemed to move in slow motion. Alex fell to the ground, Keamy backed away into the jungle, and Ben stood motionless at the window, unable to comprehend what was happening.

Lena covered her mouth in shock. Alex was just a kid. There had been death on the island, but nothing like what had just happened. 

“He changed the rules.” Ben whispered, before abruptly turning around and walking past the rest of the group. Sawyer and Locke were arguing over what to do with Ben when he pushed through them and pulled a bookshelf to the side.

_Of course there’s a secret room._

Ben opened the door, walked in, and closed it behind him jus was Sawyer reached the door as well.

“Damn it!” Sawyer yelled, pounding on the door. “Open the door!” 

“What’s going on?” Asked a familiar voice groggily. Sawyer abruptly stopped shouting, and Lena stopped trying to open the door. Both of them turned to see Claire struggling to sit up.

“Hey.” Lena said gently, knelling down next to her. “You alright?”

“A bit wobbly, but I’ll live.” Claire replied, rubbing her head and stretching out her legs. 

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” Miles muttered. Lena glared at him, hoping that Claire hadn’t heard. She was about to say more when Ben suddenly walked back out from his secret room, acting as if nothing had happened. 

“Alright, all of you listen to me very carefully.” Ben said, ignoring Sawyer’s questions. ”In one minute, we all have to run away from here as fast as we can and head for the tree line.”

“You mean towards the guys trying to kill us?” Lena asked, not at all following Ben’s plan.

“No, we want to be as far away from them as possible.” Ben replied. The house began to shake, subtly at first but then feeling like an earthquake. Photographs on the wall fell to the ground and shattered upon impact as a familiar pillar of smoke was visible outside.

“Go, go!” Ben yelled. Lena didn’t need to be told twice. She sprinted along with the rest of her group, hand on her sword in case the smoke monster decided to go after them. She could hear people screaming, and she heard gunfire as well, although she doubted it would do much against that thing.

“What did you do?!” Locke cried as trees began to uproot all around them. “Did you call it?!” Ben didn’t reply, instead he continued to lead them to safety. 

“Go ahead, I’ll catch up.” Ben said quietly. “I have to say goodbye to my daughter.”


	5. Chapter 5

“You lied to me, Ben.” Locke commented as the group that was Lena, Sawyer, Ben, Locke, Claire, Aaron, and Miles walked through the jungle. They were the only remaining survivors of Locke’s group. “You said you didn’t know what the smoke monster was.”

“Well, you can ask Jacob all about it when we get to the cabin.” Ben replied. Lena and Sawyer exchanged a confused glance before Sawyer launched into questions. 

“Who the hell is Jacob?” Sawyer asked. Ben sighed as if the answer was obvious, but he explained it anyways. 

“Jacob is the man who’s going to tell us what to do next, James.”

“You know what?” Sawyer exclaimed. “I’m done with this. I never should have gone with you wackos in the first place. I’m going back to the beach, and Claire and the kid are coming with me.” Claire nodded in confirmation, clearly wanting to get away from Ben and Locke. Sawyer then turned to Lena for her answer. “Lena?”  
“I’m not going with these guys, that’s for sure,” Lena replied. While she had felt a bit of sympathy for Ben when Alex died, it was overshadowed by the fact that Ben was, well, Ben. “I’m in.”

“I’m coming with you too,” Miles added. Sawyer sighed but didn’t say anything.

“Right, let’s go,” He said eventually. “You too, Hugo.” Hurley seemed glad to leave, and the five of them, plus Aaron, of course, started to leave.

“Hugo stays with us.” Locke said, pulling a gun out and pointing it at Sawyer. Both Lena and Sawyer pulled out their guns as well, although Lena didn’t really want to fight anyone, and she was pretty sure Sawyer didn’t either. But she would, if it was necessary.

“Not a chance,” Sawyer growled.

“Wait, leave me out of this!” Hurley protested, glancing uncomfortably between the two groups. 

“I’m sorry Hugo, but we need you to find the cabin.” Locke said regretfully. _Cabin? You mean the one that you were looking for earlier but it disappeared?_ Was what Lena wanted to say, but what she did end up saying was very different. 

“I’ll give you a counter offer, you insane son of a bitch.” Lena said. “You let us all leave, and maybe I won’t stab you.” As she said that, she slowly took one hand off of her gun and put it on the hilt of the sword that was resting in the sheath at her hip, as per usual. 

“You’re not going to stab either of us, Lena.”

“Not fatally, maybe,” Lena replied with a shrug. “But I think it would really hurt to get a sword in your-“

“Dude!” Hurley shouted, interrupting her. “It’s okay. Please, just put your guns down.” Locke did so immediately, and Lena followed suit. Sawyer was last, and he reluctantly agreed to put his gun away.

Hurley assured them that he would be able to catch up to them at the beach and that he would be fine, but Lena was skeptical. 

“If you harm even one hair on his curly head, I’ll kill you.” Sawyer warned Locke. Despite everything, Lena took a moment to appreciate how far Sawyer had come from the selfish bastard who hoarded everything to someone who genuinely cared about people and wanted to protect them. 

“Come on,” Sawyer said after Locke, Ben, and Hurley left. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

…

They had been walking for hours, no one saying a word. There wasn’t really much to say. Most of their fellow survivors were dead, Ben and Locke had taken Hurley, and the rest of their friends were working with the freighter that had just sent people to kill them.

So, in short, just a normal day on the island. 

Claire stumbled and let out a quiet yell before regaining her footing. Lena turned immediately to make sure she was alright, and she seemed to be doing fine.

“You okay?” Lena asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Claire replied. “Just a bit woozy. I have a little headache, but I’m not seeing things anymore.” Lena frowned, not realizing that Claire had, in fact, been seeing things. She was about to ask about it when someone else beat her to the punch.

“What did you see?” Miles piped up.

“Back off,” Sawyer warned. Miles put his hands up in mock surrender and rolled his eyes ever-so-subtly. As Sawyer continued to talk, Miles’s eyes fluttered strangely, and he froze in place.

“What?” Lena and Sawyer asked at the same time, both of them already fed up with the man from the freighter.

“Who are Danielle and Karl?”

That question took Lena aback, and she started to wonder as Claire explained who they were. How would Miles even know that those two existed? 

Miles, in response to Claire’s explanation, dug his hands into the ground and pulled some dirt away. To Lena’s horror, underneath the mud was the body of Danielle Rousseau. Miles didn’t seemed to be fazed, and he continued to dig in another spot, where Karl’s body was revealed.

“Oh my god,” Lena whispered. Danielle had managed to survive on the island for over sixteen years, but even she couldn’t live forever. And Karl was just a kid, like Alex. 

“How the hell did you know they were down there?” Sawyer demanded of Miles. “Did your buddies that just attacked us do this?”

“They’re not my ‘buddies.’” Miles retorted angrily, although he wasn’t exactly intimidating next to the taller, more muscular Sawyer. “I didn’t sign up for this.”

“Let’s just get out of here,” Claire said, trembling slightly. “Please, can we just go.”

“I’m with her on this one,” Lena agreed. “Let’s get back to the beach. Everything will be okay once we make it there.” She wasn’t exactly sure if she was saying that for her benefit or Claire’s, and she knew that it wasn’t exactly true. But Jack and Kate and the others were at the beach, and they could help.

Sayid was at the beach. 

Sayid. It seemed like years ago since she had last seen him, when really it was only about a week. She wished that their last meeting had ended differently, she wished that they had been able to work it out. Hopefully, when they got back to the beach, she could make things right. 

… 

“Hey, Lena!” Sawyer called out to her as they were continuing to walk. Lena turned around and wanted for him to catch up, with Miles trailing behind him. “I need you to make sure this guy stays away from Claire. I gave him a restraining order, but I ain’t sure he’s gonna listen.”

“You gave him a restraining order?” Lena laughed. Sawyer glared at her, and it suddenly felt just like old times. “Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on him.” Sawyer nodded gratefully before walking ahead with Claire, leaving Lena with Miles.

“Is he always like that?” Miles asked, annoyed.

“Pretty much, yeah,” Lena replied. “If he doesn’t trust you, you’re toast. And let me tell you something about Sawyer: You do not want to get on his bad side.”  
“And what about your bad side?” Miles questioned. When Lena didn’t reply, he continued. “So what’s with that sword?” That was one thing Lena was willing to answer, because as annoying as Miles was, she still didn’t want him to burn himself.

“I found it in the jungle one day,” Lena answered. “It burned everyone else when they tried to touch it, but not me. I don’t know why, so don’t bother asking.”

Suddenly, there was a loud rustling coming from the trees. Sawyer stopped and pulled out his gun, standing protectively in front of Claire. Lena whipped out her sword, very much aware of Miles jumping back in fright.

From the foliage emerged a man carrying some kind of first aid kit and a phone that looked very similar to that one that had belonged to Naomi.

“Lapidus?!” Miles exclaimed in disbelief. Lena knew who he was then: One of Miles’s team members, or maybe the pilot.

“Miles?” Lapidus replied, equally shocked.

“You two know each other?” Sawyer asked. Miles started to hastily explain, but Lapidus skipped right past any sort of explanation.

“You guys need to hide, right now!” Lapidus said urgently. “Keamy is coming back, and he’ll kill you all if he sees you. Go, hide!” Lena hesitated for a split second before crouching behind a thicket of bushes, along with Sawyer, Miles, and Claire, who was holding Aaron.

They got there just in the nick of time, because no sooner had they gotten in position than Keamy and his remaining men walked out of the jungle.

_So, that asshole is still alive then._

Keamy and Lapidus started talking, but Lena couldn’t hear. She could tell, though, that it was mostly Keamy yelling at Lapidus, and Lapidus trying to talk some common sense into the man.

Lena had traded her sword for a gun, and she was ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. She didn’t dare to look, bu she could tell that Sawyer was prepared as well. 

Keamy seemed to be about to leave when Aaron made a small sound. Claire tried her best to cover it up, but Keamy’s expression made it clear that he heard something. Lena had her gun pointed right at his head, but none of the four of them dared to move an inch for fear of being discovered.

Bird whistles ended up saving them, as a whole host of them began after Aaron’s cry. Keamy must have thought Aaron’s noise was one of them, because he ordered his men to move out, back to the helicopter that was apparently on the island.

Once they were gone, Lena breathed out a sigh of relief. It had been a close call, but they were still alive. 

…

Lena woke up with a start, already sensing that something was wrong. They had decided to make camp for the night, and she could tell that she overslept.

The only person still there was Miles, and for a horrible moment, Lena thought that she had been left behind. That thought quickly left her mind, however, because she knew Sawyer and Claire would never do that.

“What’s happening?” Lena asked. Miles just shrugged. She glared at him before pulling out her sword and running after the footprints that led into the jungle. 

“Claire! Sawyer!” She yelled, starting to get worried. She was just about to full on panic when she ran into a clearing and saw Sawyer holding Aaron in his arms.

“Oh thank god,” Lena sighed with relief. “Where’s Claire?” That was when Lena saw the terrified look on Sawyer’s face.

“I don’t know.”


	6. Chapter 6

The three of them, even Miles, searched for Claire for over a day. But the woman had completely disappeared, leaving nothing but Aaron.

So, they had to make a decision, and they decided to go back to the beach. 

Lena had never seen a more welcome sight in all her time on the island. The familiar of it all almost made her forget all of the horrible things that had happened in just the past few days.

Jack and Kate reached them first, with Juliet, Rose, and Bernard following closely behind. Charlotte was also there, standing with a man Lena didn’t know.

“Where’s Claire?” Jack asked after they all greeted each other. Sawyer and Lena glanced at each other, and Sawyer nodded to say that he would do it.

“We lost her,” He said sadly. “She just walked off in the middle of the night. We thought she might have gone back here, but I guess not.” While Sawyer explained everything, Lena looked around the camp, but the person she was hoping to see wasn’t there.

“Where’s-“ She began, fearing the worst, but Kate cut her off, already knowing what she was going to say.

“Sayid went to the freighter along with Desmond,” Kate explained. Lena’s eyes widened in fear. Sayid was stuck on the same freighter that had just sent people to kill them. “I think he just tossed this phone out of the helicopter.” She held the phone up in the air, but Lena was pretty sure it had been Lapidus who threw it to them.

“You better hope it wasn’t Sayid, because if he’s with those monsters that just blew up New Otherton, you do not want to mess with them,” Sawyer replied. Jack and Kate both stared in shock at the events Sawyer described, clearly not knowing what had happened.

“They tried to kill you?” Kate asked incredulously, as if it was the craziest thing that could have happened. 

“Yeah, just like we all thought,” Lena retorted. “Even Locke said they would.”

Sawyer and Jack continued to argue about Jack going back into the jungle with a radio and getting off of the island, which ended with Jack determinedly saying that he was going to find the helicopter and rescue everyone. Kate, meanwhile, reluctantly agreed to stay behind in order to take care of Aaron.

“Hold up!” Sawyer yelled as Jack began to walk into the jungle. “You don’t get to die alone.” 

…Lena didn’t notice the raft pulling on shore until she heard Sayid’s name exclaimed by multiple people. At that, she turned around abruptly, and there was Sayid, pulling a motorized raft onto the shore.

 _Sayid, Sayid, Sayid_. Alive, unharmed, even, from being on the freighter. While she knew he could handle himself, Lena had still been worried that something happened. But he was there. 

She ran over as fast as she could, and she saw his expression soften at the sight of her. 

“Sayid,” She said, suddenly having no idea what to say. “I- I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have gone with Locke’s plan, I should have listened to you-“

“You don’t need to apologize,” Sayid interrupted. “We were both right, and both wrong. I suppose we both have things to be sorry for.” At first, she was a bit too shocked to speak. She hadn’t been expecting to be forgiven so easily after she had pulled a complete 180 and went with Locke. But he was right. The people on the freighter weren’t all evil, but they certainly weren’t all good either. Lena was about to say more to Sayid when the rest of the survivors reached them, bringing the unfortunate reality along with them. 

“Where’s Desmond?” Sun asked. She was holding Aaron in her arms, so Lena could only assume that Kate had gone into the jungle as well. Oh yeah, Desmond. Lena felt a little guilty for forgetting about him, but she didn’t dwell on that too much.

“He’s fine, he’s still on the freighter,” Sayid replied. “We need to start talking people back. The raft can fit six at a time. And we have to go now, before the helicopter gets back to the boat.”  
“That’s going to be a problem,” Juliet explained. “Jack, Kate, and Sawyer just went running after it.”

…

Sayid’s plan was a good one, but based on his expression, his intention was to go back into the jungle after them. 

Instead of taking the people back to the boat himself, Sayid enlisted Daniel Faraday, one of the members of the science team. Daniel was the one who had made the bearing to get to and from the island in the first place, so he was the best candidate for the job.

Sayid had been right before: Both he and Lena were right and wrong about the freighter situation. The people on the boat weren’t all bad, but they were by no means all good either.

Sayid was about to leave when Kate burst out of the jungle, looking exhausted and panting for breath.

“Sayid?” She gasped. “What are you doing here? Jack thought-“

“That’s why I’m going after him,” Sayid interrupted. “How far ahead is he?”

“I don’t know,” Kate replied. “He’s with Sawyer, and they left about an hour ago. Jack has a sat phone, and they’re going to the helicopter. I’ll go with you, I can track them.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Sayid said. Kate made sure Aaron was taken care of by Sun, before the two of them started to walk away.

“Wait!” Lena exclaimed. “I’ll go with you. I’ve seen what the people that came from the freighter can do, you’ll need my help.”

“No, you need to stay here and get everyone to the boat, and protect them if something happens,” Sayid replied. “And then you need to get there too.” Lena knew there wasn’t any time to waste, so she didn’t argue, even though she wanted to. Besides, there weren’t many fighters or weapons left on the beach, so if something did happen, she might be the only defense. If she left, she was practically leaving everyone on the beach defenseless. 

“Be careful then,” She said reluctantly, still hating to stay behind. “Remember, you can still always count on me.” There were a thousand more words running through her head, so many more things she wanted to say, and so little time to say them.

So she kissed him instead. 

It wasn’t a long kiss, as there was no time for that sort of thing. But it managed to say more words than either of them could express, communicating feelings that the they couldn’t make sense of. The moment was short, and yet it still managed to be meaningful.

“Just in case,” She said hurriedly after they broke apart. “You know, in case we all die.”

“I’ll be back soon,” Sayid replied, ignoring her pessimistic statement. “And then we’re getting off of this island, together.” 

…

Daniel returned from his first run to the freighter, which had included Jin and Sun. 

“Did you get them to the boat?” Lena asked as he panted for breath.

“Yeah, everyone’s fine,” Daniel replied, still trying to catch his breath. “They fixed the engine, so they’re going to try to get as close as possible. I’ll take the next trip in a few minutes.”

“Alright,” Juliet said as Daniel started to run off. “I’ll get the next group ready. Oh, Dan?” Daniel turned around, looking a little surprised.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for helping us,” Juliet said. Lena nodded in agreement, and Daniel smiled slightly before running to get water and give instructions to Charlotte and Miles.

“Okay, you six, get on the boat!” Lena instructed, pointing to six different people. She and Juliet got everyone situated, and Daniel returned to take them back. Once the raft was in the water, Lena turned to Juliet. 

“I just want to say I’m sorry,” Lena began, kind of awkwardly. “I was wrong about you.”

“Oh?” Juliet replied, confused. Clearly she hadn’t been expecting Lena to say anything to her. 

“I first thought you were some kind of evil spy working for Ben,” Lena explained. Which she had almost been, but instead Juliet did the right thing. “But I know that isn’t true now, and I just want to say I’m sorry for assuming those things. You’re not bad, Juliet.”

“Thanks, Lena,” Juliet said sincerely. “You’re not that bad either.” 

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Lena joked. The two of them laughed, and Lena’s mood felt immediately lifted. She really was finding friendship in the most unlikely places.

…

Daniel continued to take everyone back and forth, and Lena and Juliet made sure everyone got off the island safely. Hopefully, Sayid, Jack, Kate, and the others had already completed their side mission and were safe on the freighter as well.

“Let me guess, you two aren’t coming?” Daniel asked as he was about to leave again. There weren’t many people left on the beach, and the next group was ready to go.

“I’m not going anywhere until everyone’s off this island,” Juliet said. Daniel turned to Lena, as if she might have a different answer, even though she did not.

“We’ll still be here when you get back.” Lena reassured him, although Daniel looked a little worried.

“Right… when I get back,” Daniel muttered before turning to the next group. “Okay, everybody ready? Let’s go.” 

Daniel had just left on the raft when Lena heard some rustling in the trees and the sound of a bullet clicking into place. No one else would have a reason to come back to the beach with a loaded gun, so Lena crept closer and peered into the trees. Just as she thought, she was able to see at least two of Keamy’s soldiers hiding in the treeline. 

“Hide, hide!” Lena whisper-yelled. Juliet didn’t question it, and they convinced the remaining survivors to scatter in the jungle, Rose and Bernard among them. Lena and Juliet, meanwhile, hid near a tent.

“What’s going on?” Juliet whispered. Lena shushed her before pointing to the treeline. Sure enough, three of Keamy’s men emerged from the dense jungle. Lena heard Juliet quietly sigh behind her.

“Do you have any weapons?” Lena asked. Juliet shook her head. “Ok, take my gun.” As quietly as possible, Lena pulled out her gun and handed it to Juliet, who held it in a way that told Lena she knew how to use one.

“What about you?” Juliet asked. Despite everything, a small grin crept up Lena’s face.

“I’ll distract them,” Lena said. “You just need to try to find a weak spot in their armor and shoot them when you can. Got it?” Juliet nodded, so Lena quietly slid her sword out of her sheath and balanced it in her hands. She let out a long sigh as she watched the movements of the three soldiers. They were armed and strong-looking, and there was just one other person on Lena’s side. The odds were not in their favor.

Then again, were they ever?

Lena popped up from her hiding spot and attempted to sneak up on the soldiers. However, since there were three of them and they were in broad daylight on a beach, that didn’t really work so well.

“Look!” One of them shouted, pointing in her direction. The other two turned around, and Lena created one of her energy shields by making an X with the sword. That was a skill she hadn’t used in a while, and she figured it would be useful.

However, the bullets of the soldiers passed right through her shield.

_It must only work on that smoke thing._

Well, Lena supposed, it was time for Plan B. She didn’t really have a Plan B, but she went with it anyways. The bullets from the guns narrowly missed her as she darted towards the nearest soldier, cutting him down easily. She slashed at chinks in his armor until he could no longer protect himself, which was when she sliced at his throat.

A long time ago, Lena would have felt awful for taking someone’s life. But things had changed.

Unfortunately, the second and third soldiers were catching on to Lena’s fighting style, and they managed to dodge her blows. Lena really wished she had a gun, but she would make do with what she had.

Remembering what had saved her on the night they tried to blow up the Others, she knocked the man’s gun out of his hand, aiming for a weak spot. That small victory didn’t last long, however, as he pulled out a machete.

It was a full-on sword fight, with the third soldier unable to do anything as he could possibly hit the man Lena was currently fighting. Blade met blade as the two of them desperately tried to stab each other. Lena slashed at his stomach, while he jabbed his machete toward her neck. Both blows were countered by each other, but as Lena brought her sword down again, she felt a sharp pain in her leg and looked down to see that she had been stabbed in the leg.

Lena had let her guard down for too long, as the machete was currently swinging towards her neck, with nothing to stop it-

 _Bang! Bang!_ The man staggered backwards, a bullet in his head. He collapsed to the ground as Lena briefly turned to see Juliet, who must have found an opening to shoot, standing behind a tent with her gun in hand. The second shot Lena had heard had gone into the third soldier’s chest.

They won. 

Juliet rushed over as Lena fell, her wound getting the better of her. Lena knew that Juliet was a fertility doctor, but she assumed that the former Other could help with her stab wound.

“You really had to wait until the last second there, huh?” She groaned as Juliet knelt down next to her

“Sorry about that,” Juliet began. “But that was one of the most awesome things I have ever seen.” Lena chucked as Juliet quickly wrapped her leg with bandages that she had found in a nearby tent. The rest of the survivors were still scattered, and Lena had a feeling that they weren’t coming back anytime soon. 

“What are we going to do when Daniel gets back?” Lena asked after she managed to stand up. “Everyone went in hiding, but we have to get them on the freighter.” But Juliet didn’t respond, and Lena could see her gazing out at something over the water. “Juliet?”

“Lena,” She whispered. “I don’t think anyone is getting on that boat.” Lena, dreading what she was about to see, turned to where Juliet was facing and saw a smoking wreckage in place of where the boat had been. 

“No,” Lena gasped. “No, no, no.” But as much as she denied it, Lena couldn’t avoid the terrible truth: The boat had exploded, and all of her friends were on it.

_Sayid._

Lena mumbled something about having to go before taking off into the jungle, leaving Juliet behind. Part of her tried to be optimistic: Maybe they weren’t on the boat, or maybe they were in the helicopter.

_Please let them be alive, please, please, please._

If they weren’t, Lena was going to find whoever blew the boat up, and she would kill them. Then, she would figure out how to bring them back to life just so she could kill them again. 

Everything had been working out, too. It was all certain, and it was supposed to end out fine. But nothing ever ended well on that island. 

Suddenly, a loud buzzing noise penetrated the air, not unlike the one that had sounded when the hatch exploded. A bright white light followed, nearly blinding Lena as it grew more and more radiant as the ground began to shake. Everything was completely bright, making the world seem to disappear.

And then, the world came back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, season four is done! It was always my plan to have Lena go with the time travel group, which meant that I only got six chapters worth of material for this season. Anyways, let me know what you think of the story so far!
> 
> Also, on a completely different note, I have posted a new Lost fanfiction, this one being a post-canon fic that you can find on my profile, so feel free to check that out! Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you all on Friday with the start of season five.


	7. Chapter 7

Lena could tell something had just happened. Everything had become bright and then normal again, but something felt different.

It could have been the fact that the freighter exploded, but Lena had a feeling that wasn’t it. She decided to head back to the beach to find answers, if there even were answer. 

“Hey!” Lena shouted as she ran out onto the sand. Juliet was there, along with, surprisingly, Sawyer. Lena had thought he went to the boat, but perhaps she had been wrong. “What the hell just happened?!”

“If we knew, we probably wouldn’t be here, Blue,” Sawyer replied. Lena rolled her eyes at the use of the annoying nickname, although she was disappointed that neither Juliet nor Sawyer knew anything at all about what had just happened. 

“Rose? Rose!” Someone yelled as the leaves rustled. Bernard burst out of the jungle, frantically looking for his wife. “Have you seen Rose?” Lena was about to answer that she didn’t know where she was when Rose ran from the jungle as well.

“Bernard!” She exclaimed. The two of them hugged tearfully, and the other three on the beach glanced at each other awkwardly.

“What was that sound?” Rose asked. “And that light, where did it come from?”

“Just calm down, alright?” Sawyer replied. “We don’t need to panic. We just need to get back to camp and-“

“Calm down?” Bernard echoed. “We can’t go back to the camp, Sawyer, because there is no camp.” 

_I’m sorry, what?_

…

It turned out, Bernard had been right. Where the tents and pantry had been was just open beach. There were no supplies whatsoever, and there weren’t many people either. Charlotte and Miles were there, along with a few other 815 survivors, but that was it.

“The sky lit up, and then this,” Bernard explained. “The kitchen, the tents, the food and water… all gone. Everything but us is gone.”  
“It’s not gone,” Said a voice from behind them. Lena turned to see Daniel Faraday running towards them, along with the most recent group of people he had been planning to take to the now exploded freighter. 

Charlotte and Daniel quickly hugged, and Lena smiled slightly. The two of them clearly had feelings for each other, even if they weren’t willing to admit it. 

“Listen, we don’t have much time,” Daniel explained after hastily introducing himself to Sawyer. “I need to find something man-made, something that was built.”

“There’s a hatch a few miles from here,” Lena piped up. “But it exploded, so I don’t know how much help that’s going to be.”

“It’s perfect,” Daniel reassured her. “We need to get moving now, before it happens again.” There was something about the way Daniel said it that made Lena very worried. Something strange was happening to the island, and not in a good way.

“Before what happens?” Sawyer demanded. “And why the hell is our camp gone.”

“It’s not gone,” Daniel answered. “It just hasn’t been built yet.” 

…

Lena’s mind was reeling as they walked from the beach to the hatch. Daniel hadn’t bothered to explain anything, leaving everybody confused. But, what Lena had gathered was that they were time traveling.

And she thought she’d seen everything.

Up ahead, Sawyer and Daniel were arguing, and the fight seemed to be escalating, although it seemed to mostly be Sawyer who was getting angry.

“Let’s call a time to so you can tell us what the hell is going on?” Sawyer was yelling. Daniel said something Lena couldn’t hear, to which Sawyer replied: “Trust you? I don’t even know you!”

At that, Lena pushed her way towards the front of the group, knowing that Sawyer’s anger could get out of hand, and Daniel wasn’t exactly equipped to fight him off.

“Sawyer, leave the guy alone,” Lena sighed. Sawyer didn’t listen, as per usual.

“We do not have time for explanations, okay!” Daniel said. “You have to idea how difficult it would be to explain this to a quantum physicist. That would be difficult for me, so to explain this to you-“ Sawyer abruptly cut him off by slapping him in the face.

“Sawyer!” Lena exclaimed, although she wasn’t sure what she had been expecting. 

“Hey!” Charlotte yelled, running forward. “What in the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Shut it, Ginger,” Sawyer said. Lena looked to Juliet for help, but the former Other just shrugged, unable to do anything as well. While Sawyer had learned to be much kinder to people ehe trusted, he certainly didn’t trust anyone on the science team.

“Look,” Daniel began. “Think of the island as a spinning record. Only right now, the record is skipping. Whatever Benjamin Linus did at the Orchid station, I think it may have dislodged us.” Lena didn’t know what the Orchid station was, and she wasn’t aware that Ben had gone down there, but none of it sounded good.

“Dislodged us from what?” Lena asked, already guessing at what the answer could be.

“Time.” 

_Great, just great._

“That’s why our camp is gone? Because the island is moving through time?” Juliet asked. Daniel sighed and nodded. 

“Either the island is, or we are,” Daniel continued. Lena wasn’t sure which option was worse. “It’s very likely that we’re all moving. Everyone in your group is accounted for, right?”

“Not everyone,” Sawyer said with a deep sigh. Lena also sighed in annoyance she realized who it was that was left. 

“Locke,” She said, glancing and Sawyer, who looked equally annoyed. While Locke was helpful in terms of navigating the island and fighting, he was awful to have around in almost every other way. His zealousness was unbearable, not to mention the fact that he was practically the leader of the Others at that point. Unfortunately, they were going to have to find him anyways. 

Before anyone else could say anything, the noise from before could be heard again, and a bright light filled the air.

 _Well, shit,_ Lena thought as the island skipped through time yet again.

“So where are we now, whiz kid?” Sawyer asked after everyone regained their bearings, his question directed at Daniel.

“We’re either in the past… or we’re in the future,” Daniel replied, his tone full of dread. “We need to get to the hatch. That could be the only way to know for sure.”

…

“This is it?” Daniel asked as they stared down into the giant pit that had once been the home of the infamous computer button.

“It was,” Lena replied. “Blown up, just like it has been for the past few months. Wherever- I mean, whenever- we are is after we crashed, I guess.” Lena was proud of herself for figuring that out, although she didn’t mention that fact to anyone else. 

“Does that mean our camp is back at the beach?” Sawyer asked.

“Maybe,” Daniel admitted.

“Great,” Sawyer said. “I’m going back.”

“That’s pointless,” Daniel called out as Sawyer started to walk away. He stopped in his tracks and turned around angrily, but that didn’t faze Daniel. “We don’t know when the next flash will happen, so when you get back, the camp might be gone again.”

“But it might be there,” Juliet said. “You don’t know, right? Maybe the helicopter hasn’t even taken off yet, and we can stop them from flying to that boat.” Just like that, Lena’s spirits soared. Maybe the whole time travel thing wasn’t so bad if she could save her friends. 

“That’s not the way it works,” Daniel explained, clearly tired of trying to make them understand. “You can’t change anything, even if you tried to. Imagine time as a street. You can move forward, you can move backwards, but you can’t make a new street. We’ll fail at any attempt to change things. Whatever happened, happened.” Lena’s spirits went plummeting down. Coming from anyone else in the group, she would have tried to find another way, but Daniel seemed like he knew what he was doing. 

“You need to believe me,” Daniel continued after Sawyer questioned him about his knowledge of the topic. “I’ve spent my entire life studying spacetime. I know everything there is to know about the DHARMA Initiative. I’m here because I know what’s happening.

“Great, then how do we stop it?” Sawyer asked.

“That’s the thing.” Daniel replied. “We can’t stop it.”

“Then who can?” Sawyer demanded. Daniel remained silent, and Lena tried to figure out who he could be referring to. But really, it was obvious. Who believed in everything about the island? Who had been appointed leader of the island’s inhabitants? And who seemed to always have some sort of big plan?

The answer to all of those questions was John Locke.

…

Sawyer had tried to get into the hatch, which had returned in the previous time jump, meaning they were now in the past. He had failed to get inside however, and in the end, the group decided to go back to the beach, which seemed to be their solution for everything.

Daniel had stayed behind to grab his bag and check a few things, but the rest of them went on their way. 

“Are you alright?” Juliet asked as they silently walked. Lena looked up at her in surprise.

“What makes you ask that?” Lena replied. 

“Lena, most of your friends were just on a boat that exploded,” Juliet said bluntly. Lena glanced away uncomfortably. Secretly, she was glad for the time skips because it gave her something to do, a problem to solve. It pushed back the pain.

“I’m fine, Juliet,” Lena assured her, although she didn’t sound at all fine. “Really, I am.” Juliet looked at her skeptically but didn’t say anything.

Lena was not fine, not even a little bit. But her own internal conflict could wait, as they had to deal with the very pressing external conflict first. 

By the time they arrived back at the beach, Rose and Bernard had managed to rally the rest of the survivors, and they were trying to build a fire. 

Among the rest of the survivors was an extremely annoying guy named Neil, who everyone called Frogurt for some reason.

“Who cares about fire!” Neil was shouting. “Any minute the sky could light up and who knows what could happen!”

“Either help, or be quiet Neil.” Rose snapped. “We’re trying to focus on what we can control.” Lena looked over and noticed that Daniel had gotten back, talking about how he needed to figure out exactly when they were. Until then, they would have to stick together. 

Unfortunately, it was going to be hard to do that when some people were the most infuriating people on the planet.

“We’re not going to get through this!” He yelled. “We can barely even get a fire-“

And then a flaming arrow struck him in the chest.


	8. Chapter 8

Lena gasped as the fire from the flaming arrow completely burned Neil from inside to out. She barely had time to draw her sword before dozens of flaming arrows rained from the jungle, aimed towards the survivors.

“Run!” Lena yelled, although she doubted anyone heard her over the chaos. People were bursting into flames, and the arrows didn’t seem to show any sign of stopping. 

Lena ran towards the other end of the beach and then up towards the jungle, desperately trying to deflect arrows with her sword. A few landed in the sand next to her feet or a tree near her head, but she kept going.

People were screaming for help, but there was nothing Lena could do. She couldn’t fight off an entire flaming-arrow-wielding sort of army with just a sword.

She took one last look at the beach, quickly hoped for everyone to be okay, and then ran into the normalcy and safety of the island’s jungle. 

… 

Lena had been walking for hours, and she was starting to get exhausted. While she was running into the jungle, she heard Sawyer shout for everyone to meet at the creek. Unfortunately, that was a long ways away from where Lena was.

Even more unfortunately, that gave her plenty of time to think. And there was one thing on her mind.

 _You don’t know that they’re dead,They could be alive._ Lena once again tried to find a bright side, but the chances were very slim. She hadn’t seen a helicopter coming from the boat, but she had seen one going there. 

Not only Sayid, but, Jack, Kate, Hurley, Desmond, Jin, and Sun. Even little baby Aaron. With horror, Lena realized that Sun’s unborn child was probably dead as well.

Lena unsheathed her sword, more for comfort than protection. But even the steady gold glow couldn’t make her feel better about anything.

She would have time to mourn later when they figured out how to stop time traveling. 

Suddenly, there was a rusting in the nearby trees. Lena whirled around and held her sword out in front of her. With her other hand, she reached for her gun, only to realize that she didn’t have a gun, since she had given it to Juliet earlier. Lena hoped that if whoever was there was not friendly, they weren’t heavily armed.

From the dense underbrush burst a very familiar face.

“You,” Lena sighed as she looked into the eyes of John Locke. “About time you showed up.” Lena didn’t put down her sword, not trusting the man one bit.

“Good to see you as well, Lena,” Locke replied. Lena noticed a bandage wrapped around his leg, and she briefly wondered what happened, but she assumed it had something to do with the time skips. “I assume you know about the time skips too?”

“How do you know about it?” Lena replied. If Daniel was right, which Lena was pretty sure he was, the Others weren’t time traveling either, and even then, how could they have as much knowledge as Daniel? “And do you know what happened to the boat? Who the hell blew it up?”  
“That,” Locke began. “Would be Keamy. He rigged it so if he died, the bomb would explode. Ben… Ben killed him anyways.” 

_Ben knew. He knew and he still killed him. Ben killed them all._

“That son of a bitch!” Lena exclaimed. 

“There’s more,” Locke interrupted. “Ben moved the island.” Lena looked at Locke like he was crazy, which she was pretty sure he was. She folded her arms and raised her eyebrows as he tried to explain. “Something in one of the DHARMA stations. I’m still not sure what it is, but whatever he was intending to do, I don’t think he did it right.”

“You don’t say?” Lena muttered sarcastically. As if anyone wanted to be spontaneously jumping through time. It was not a pleasant experience. 

“We can worry about that later,” Locke said hurriedly. “For now, we need to find the rest of the group.” Lena glanced at him. She was reluctant to go along with anything he said after everything that had happened, but she didn’t really have a choice.

“I’m sure you know exactly where they are?” Lena said dryly. She really wasn’t surprised when Locke grinned, insinuating that he knew the exact answer to her question.

…

“Almost there, just a bit further,” Locke whispered as Lena quietly followed him along the trail that he had found. She really wished it were Kate, instead of him, who was doing the tracking, but Kate wasn’t there.

Suddenly, Lena heard a loud scream that sounded awfully like Juliet, followed by her shouting and a voce that sounded awfully like Sawyer’s.

“Here, I’m guessing?” Lena asked quietly, although it was a little obvious. Locke nodded, and the two of them got as close as possible. Lena could see three men in DHARMA uniforms, all holding guns. One of them had a knife to Juliet’s throat, and it seemed like he was threatening to kill her.

“On my count,” Locke said in a hushed voice. “One-“ Lena, however, wasn’t waiting for Locke’s count. She burst out of the jungle and slashed at the legs of the man holding a knife to Juliet. The man pulled away in pain, just in time for a rock thrown by Locke to hit him in the head. Lena quickly glanced into the trees to see Locke, who looked peeved at her, prepared to throw a knife. Lena shoved the man towards Locke, who’s knife met its mark.

Sawyer, meanwhile, had taken on one of the other men, and Lena noticed the third one running towards Juliet with a machete in his hand.

“Not so fast,” Lena declared as she held her sword to the man’s neck. Juliet walked forward calmly and took the machete out of his hands, as well as a rifle that was in a holster on his waist. 

“James, Juliet,” Locke greeted, nodding to both of them in turn. Lena panted for breath as Juliet knocked the last man unconscious, enabling Lena to put her sword away. “I believe we have some catching up to do.”

Sawyer glanced at Lena, his eyes questioning, but she simply shrugged. Everything was confusing, and she wasn’t going to bother to try to understand or explain it.

“Who are these people?” Locke began.  
“Well, I didn’t exactly have time to ask that with everyone on fire,” Sawyer replied. Juliet sighed in annoyance at Sawyer’s sarcasm.

“They attacked us on the beach,” Juliet explained. “We don’t know why, but we told everyone else to meet at the creek. We can’t just leave them waiting for us.” Locke, however, was busy studying the rifles that belonged to the men in DHARMA uniforms. Lena doubted that they were actually part of the DHARMA Initiative, though. 

Speaking of, the two of them that remained were awake and currently speaking to each other in an unfamiliar language. 

To Lena’s immense surprise, Juliet seemed to understand them, and she began to speak to them in whatever it was.

“What are you saying?” Lena asked. “What language is that?”

“Latin,” Juliet answered. Lena raised her eyebrows. How far in the past were they if people were speaking Latin? “That one asked why we aren’t in uniform, and this one told him to shut up.”

“How exactly do they know how to speak Latin?” Locke asked. “Or you, for that matter?”

“We can speak Latin because we’re Others,” Juliet replied. While Lena wasn’t surprised that the men in uniforms were Others, she was stunned that all the Others apparently knew how to speak Latin. 

Eventually, they had decided to go back to the Others’s current camp. It wasn’t the Barracks, since they had apparently not been built yet. On the way, Juliet explained that all of the Others learned Latin because of some tradition that even she didn’t know about. 

Juliet was also questioning the Others in Latin, and she mentioned someone named Richard Alpert, who Locke seemed to know somehow. One of the men had started to talk, but the other one killed him and ran. 

“Shoot him!” Sawyer yelled to Locke, who was the only one actively holding a gun. Locke, however did nothing and let the man run.

“Why did you do that?!” Lena exclaimed. Really though, she should have expected that kind of behavior from Locke.  
“Because,” Locke answered. “He’s one of my people.” 

“Come on,” Juliet said after a long, tense, and awkward silence. “Let’s keep going.”

…

Locke had, unsurprisingly, strayed from the plan even before they came up with a plan. Everyone else from their group was dead except for Daniel, Charlotte, and Miles, who were currently captives of the Others, and Daniel had been taken into the jungle for some reason.

It turned out, Lena had actually seen Richard Alpert before. He was an Other, except the thing was, he looked exactly the same as he did in the present. Somehow, he didn’t age.

It didn’t take much to find where Daniel and the Other had gone. He left a messy trail that even Lena could follow, and they decided to go the direct confrontation route.

“Drop the gun, Blondie,”!Sawyer said to the Other that was with Daniel. Lena walked out from the jungle as well, gun in hand, to see Daniel standing near some sort of giant bomb.

“It’s okay, you don’t need your gun,” Daniel reassured them, but neither of them were convinced.

“Let’s just all put our guns down, okay?” Juliet said as she walked out from the jungle, holding the last rifle. The female Other reluctantly put down the gun and held her hands up in the air.

“Are you from the future, too?” The Other asked sarcastically. Lena looked at Daniel incredulously, and he just shrugged as if to say there was no way around it.

“You told her?” Sawyer exclaimed. The Other looked completely astonished that Daniel’s story was actually true. She looked like she was about to say something when a familiar humming noise filled the air.

“Oh shit,” Lena cursed as the sky turned bright, the world started to shake, and she moved through time once again.


End file.
